[mikevin]

Do you have any recommendations? I've been looking to get one to play with the same concept as this article but I've never pulled the trigger on buying one as I'm not sure if there any quality aspects I need to be aware of. The shipping costs for my location are a bit too much to just try one. I can also imagine there's no real difference for that price range but I want to be sure before I order one.

[notatoad]

Getting whatever is the cheapest one Amazon has listed at any given time has worked for me.

The only differentiation I can see is the really expensive ones can scan the tiny 2d codes that are silkscreened on some ICs, and the cheap ones are limited to about the same resolution that a standard consumer printer can print a barcode at. Unless you have some very specialized requirements, you should be good with just about any cheap barcode scanner.

[pjc50]

Motorola are the respected brand, but it doesn't make a great difference. You might be able to get a local secondhand one. The more expensive ones do 2D barcodes, QR etc.

An important thing for secondhand ones is to download the manual; it will contain a set of configuration barcodes so you can factory reset it, turn off beeping, etc.